There are so many industrial applications for the PGM's but have been
restricted because of their rarity. Rhodium had hit $13K/ Troy Oz recently
because it is an incredible catalyst for rendering exhaust gases much less
toxic. Palladium went from <$1K/Ozt to almost $3K as attention shifted away
from Platinum. Only Osmium is the only PGM out in the cold partly because
it forms very toxic oxides. And gold while is an aesthetic metal but
certainly not exclusively. It would find more industrial uses if it were
not so rare/expensive. Not to mention the other non precious metals like
Mo,Ti,Ta,Hf,Nb,Sc especially the latter, an incredible metal that is
precious in my opinion because of its rarity but many industrial uses.
Being of low atomic weight makes it an odd ball too. You think it would be
floating on the earth's crust. Russians use it for nose cones for SLBM to
puncture the polar ice. In my hand gun's frame too.
Anyway time to switch horses I think.
K
On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 3:36 PM Michael Clive <zeinin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yeah, my wedding ring is loaded with neutron star core material.
I can't see how dropping 10 million Kg of gold on the market wouldn't just
collapse the price. It might be helpful for genuine rare stuff like
vanadium or scandium, but not sure how much Pt/Pd/Au/Ag we need. Like, how
would the world change for the better if Pt was as cheap as aluminum? Other
than some really dope watches and chains at walmart prices..
On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 3:26 PM roxanna Mason <rocketmaster.ken@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
And as mentioned in an earlier post most heavy elements are of ET origin
so it's only semantics on how/who introduces any future ET
elements/minerals.
We'll be all gone before this idea sees fruition anyway.
K
On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 1:13 PM Rand Simberg <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
That would also be an extreme violation of the Article IX prohibition of
“adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the
introduction of extraterrestrial matter...”
But the Sudbury mine is in fact mining a nickel-iron asteroid.
On 8/15/20 1:07 PM, roxanna Mason wrote:
I know that on both accounts the latter is a bit of humor if that's ok.
But what was thought impossible even unheard of 50 years ago is
commonplace now. But with cheap rockets asteroid mining has just entered
the realm of possibility.
Think about deorbiting a stadium sized asteroid into a dessert in the SW
US or Sahara or Australia. It would break up and melt upon impact doing
most of the work of disassembly.
"Precious" metals may become a thing of the past.
K
On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 12:58 PM Rand Simberg <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
It's not that simple to make money mining asteroids, and the Moon and
Mars are not for sale.
On 8/15/20 12:25 PM, ken mason wrote:
I wonder why SpaceX/Musk isn't putting emphasis on asteroid capture and
mining. He could become the first multi trillionaire. He could buy the moon
and Mars.
K
On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 12:05 PM Keith Henson <hkeithhenson@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
snip
We really need to visit a bunch of these things, not just a handful,to
get a good idea of what's out there. The 2km near-Earth asteroid1986 DA
really does seem to be bare metal, as best we can tell by radar (andit's
actually rather more accessible than Psyche).
I ran through a rough analysis of mining 1986 DA for gold here:
https://htyp.org/Mining_Asteroids
Keith
